The present invention relates generally to the field of indoor positioning systems, and more particularly to identifying unauthorized wireless personal area network low energy devices.
Indoor positioning systems (IPS) are solutions to locate objects and/or people within a building (e.g., store, venue, public service building, etc.) or designated area through sensory information collected by a mobile device. Instead of utilizing satellites, IPS solutions rely on different technologies, including distance measurement to nearby anchor nodes (e.g., nodes with known positions, such as WiFi® access points), magnetic positioning, and dead reckoning. The IPS either actively locates mobile devices and tags or provides ambient location or environmental content for devices to be sensed. Magnetic positioning utilizes a mobile device to measure magnetic disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic disturbances, when mapped, provide a digital representation of a building's floor plan. Dead reckoning is the process of calculating the current position of an individual by using a previously determined position, or a position derived from measuring external reference points, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over an elapsed time and course.
Beacons are a class of wireless personal area network low energy devices that broadcast a universally unique identifier (UUID) to nearby portable electronic devices. The UUID is a standard identifying system that allows a unique number (e.g., 128 bits, split into five groups with a major and a minor value) to be generated for the purpose of distinguishing beacons in one network from all other beacons in other networks. The major ID value identifies and distinguishes a specific group. For example, in a two-story building, beacons placed on each of the two floors are assigned a major value specific to the floor the beacons are located on. In other words, all the beacons on the first floor share the same major value, which is different from the major value shared by the beacons on the second floor. The minor value identifies and distinguishes an individual within a group. Continuing the example, on the first floor, beacons are located in a men's, women's, and children's departments. While the major values for each of the beacons indicate the three beacons are on the first floor, each individual beacon includes a unique minor value that distinguishes the beacon in the men's, women's, and children's departments from one another. The identifier (UUID, major ID, and minor ID) can therefore be used to determine the physical location of a mobile device and/or trigger a location-based action of the mobile device, such as a check-in on social media or a push notification.